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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23194186">Wellspring</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9'>Babykitsune9</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bleach, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Awkward Toshinori, F/M, Female Kurosaki Ichigo, Girls make him nervous, He also thinks that Kisuke kidnapped the kids, Meddling Nezu and Toshinori, Protective Kisuke, Protective soul reaper friends</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:34:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,015</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23194186</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ichigo was a wellspring of power, this was never more true than it was after Aizen's defeat. and that was why Kisuke and the others had to protect her at all costs. No pairings yet. But this is a bleach/Mha crossover with a fem Ichigo.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kurosaki Ichigo &amp; Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>162</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ichigo was a wellspring of power.</p><p>The thought often struck him when he watched the girl train in his hidden, underground facility. But the day that she beat finally did what he hadn't been able too and beat Aizen, it really struck him <em>hard</em>. It must have struck Aizen pretty hard too. The differences in their power was too immense for the man to truly grasp.</p><p>But even he had been surprised by just <em>how</em> much power she wielded.</p><p>For god's sake, Aizen had been using the Hogyoku to become a god!</p><p>And Ichigo- extraordinary, wonderful, <em>mindboggling</em>, Ichigo- had quite literally come out of nowhere as a semi-normal human child. And had practically wrapped the Hogyoku in her own incredibly immense power and had overshadowed it to such a degree that even <em>he</em> had thought that his invention had shorted out!</p><p>The fact that Ichigo had finally shown that she was more powerful than Aizen in his <em>god</em> form wasn't totally lost on him either.</p><p>Imagine, a human that could literally defeat gods. It was such an amazing sight to behold. So much so that for once he was absolutely speechless. His analytical mind turning everything that he knew of the girl over and over and over again until he came to one startling conclusion.</p><p>Ichigo was an unfathomable wellspring of power. And as such, she had to be <em>protected </em>at all costs. After all, even he knew the damage that she could do if the wrong people managed to sink their claws into her- was beyond <em>cataclysmic</em>.</p><p>So once everything was over and done, Aizen was captured and sent on him way- drooling like a vegetable- possibly from having his brain scrambled by the information overload. And everyone was present and accounted for, he pulled each of them aside and told them that Ichigo couldn't keep doing Soul Reaper work anymore.</p><p>His one and only thought at the moment was to hide that immense power of hers from the Soul Society and the greedy bastards that longed to have such power at their fingertips. Even he knew that should they learn of Ichigo's present abilities, that they would hunt her.</p><p>Lock her away. Experiment and even dissect her to learn what they could of her abilities. Just how strong they were, how to recreate others with such abilities exct...</p><p>He couldn't allow that to happen. <em>Ever</em>.</p><p>He had to plan things literally in the span of seconds. And sadly, he wasn't sure if she would listen to him if he told her that it was no longer safe for her to return home to her family. With her power spilling out like it was, she'd accidentally draw the attention of every hollow, still living espada, Meno's, and many, many more.</p><p>Her family could get hurt or even killed. And while he knew that she could more or less take care of herself, it was still a risk.</p><p>Naturally, Rukia, Chad, and Renji seemed to understand the most just what the situation had snowballed into. And they had agreed wholeheartedly that Ichigo needed to be kept safe.</p><p>So once he'd settled on a plan, and went to collect the girl- he was more than a tad bit surprised to find that the kids were going to come with him. He'd tried to reason with them and tell them to stay, but <em>dammit</em> that lot was fucking stubborn. Especially when it came to Ichigo.</p><p>They told him in no uncertain terms that she was theirs just as much as they were hers. Which was a little bit of a weird way to over simplify things. But it was understandable at least.</p><p>Ichigo tended to inspire loyalty and a strong sense of camaraderie in even the worst of individuals. After all, that was how she managed to gain Kenpachi, and Ikkaku as her friends/rivals.</p><p>Looking from one face to another, he was struck by the strength of the kids bond to Ichigo. And upon finally nodding his head in acceptance of the fact that they would be coming with him, they quickly moved to leave and go say their goodbyes.</p><p>After all, they would be leaving Karakura Town...perhaps for good.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Two months later,</p><p>Musutafu Japan-</p><p>It had taken some doing once they had left Karakura Town, but they had finally settled on a city that Kisuke firmly believed that they could all thrive in. Ichigo herself, was adamant about going back to school and finishing her education. And though he'd offered on multiple occasions to tutor her- she'd shot him down with the same excuse.</p><p>Socilaizing with people her own age wouldn't kill her.</p><p>He strongly disagreed with her about that.</p><p>Statistically speaking, peer pressure <em>killed</em> thousands of kids in one manner or another everyday.</p><p>But he understood that she was simply at that age where she needed to go out and lay roots of some kind for herself. Especially since any roots that she formerly had had been uprooted and destroyed.</p><p>So he figured that he'd allow it since the others would be going with her anyways. Besides, they all had good heads on their shoulders (Renji aside), they wouldn't give in to any lousy peer pressure. Especially after he'd stressed to each of them just what he'd do to them all if they did.</p><p>That was a one sided conversation the likes of which would never be repeated to <em>anyone</em>. And so what if the kids had all started to sleep with one eye open due to his threats of excessive bodily harm, at least he'd made his point.</p><p>So now all he had to do was find a nice school that met certain very specific criteria.</p><p>Ever since leaving Karakura Town, Kisuke and the others had been made painfully aware that the world was vastly different from how it had been portrayed in TV and the movies and such. Which is something that they had figured out for themselves the first time they'd run into someone with a quirk.</p><p>It hadn't been a particularly good run in. In fact it had been terrible.</p><p>Orihime and Rukia had both nearly wound up being kidnapped by human traffickers. So naturally after that particular incident, Kisuke had begun to keep an even more careful eye on the kids.</p><p>Ichigo in particular could be reckless. So could Renji, Chad and Rukia. But at least they thought before they usually acted. Whereas Ichigo tended to rely strongly on her instincts and used those to react to specific things. He couldn't exactly say that he blamed her any. Especially since her instincts had never been<em> wrong</em> about anything as of yet.</p><p>But even he knew that there was a first time for everything. Though the chances of her instincts steering her wrong were notoriously slim. Ichigo usually knew what she was doing when she relied on them to help her read people. And she usually tended to look pretty deeply into a person's mind and character too.</p><p>So...maybe her chances of being steered wrong bordered more on the astronomical?</p><p>
  <em>Whatever.</em>
</p><p>Anyways, the schools that he was currently looking into had to meet certain specific criteria. A sound security system was among one of the things that the school had to have. The reason for this was so that he could secretly hack into the system and keep track of what happened.</p><p>That way if anything bad happened, he'd be one of the first people to know and could respond accordingly.</p><p>Excellent teachers were another criteria. After all, if the kids were going to go to school, then it better be a fucking fantastic one with excellent teachers. At present, he was standing outside of a place called U.A.</p><p>A supposed hero school.</p><p>He didn't really understand the reason for the label 'hero' and why it was attached to the school. But he couldn't help but be curious. So far everywhere else he'd gone had fallen woefully short of his expectations. And he'd heard nothing but <em>good</em> things about this place from everyone that had even mentioned it.</p><p>And yet...standing here eyeing the high wall surrounding the place- he could tell that while they had a security system of sorts, it would still be disgustingly easy to break inside. For him anyways. He didn't know how a high wall and security alarm was supposed to keep a quirk user out.</p><p>He supposed that it depended entirely on the quirk being used.</p><p>Humming, he wondered about the best way to get a tour of the place. Sure they had a phone number that you could call to schedule an appointment, but in his experience- people tended to either work best under pressure. Or completely cave under it.</p><p>So if he was going to see if this school was a perfect fit for the kids. Or more specifically Ichigo, then he supposed that the best way to go about it was to set off the alarm and see what would happen.</p><p>Sighing, he looked around to see if there were anyone that might actually impede his self appointed task. Luckily the only people that were out and about were simple civilians. So...no one to stop him there.</p><p><em>Awesome, now lets see about tripping that alarm.</em> He thought to himself as he bent his legs a little bit and then jumped. He didn't have to use much strength or force considering the fact that the stone wall was fairly average as far as height went, even if it was over fifteen feet high. So jumping it was easy.</p><p>However his jumping it didn't seem to trip any kind of alarm.</p><p><em>Disappointing, but I'm not done yet.</em> He mused to himself as soon as he landed on the grass. After all, sometimes being subtle didn't work. Maybe the school's security system was programed to go off at something else. A disruption in the wall maybe? Like having it damaged?</p><p>If so then he'd have to put a small hole in the wall and see if that set the alarm off. It wouldn't have to be big, in fact it would be no more than the size of a pebble. It would probably be unnoticeable to anyone who didn't know what to look for. So fixing it would be easy enough.</p><p>He was about to do just that when all of a sudden a large shadow fell over him and he heard a man growl out in a dark tone, "What. Do. You. Think. You're. Doing?"</p><p>He let out a low whistle of appreciation as he slowly turned his head to look at the giant wall of...<em>holy shit</em> was this guy even human? He was taller than Chad! And more built too.</p><p>He also looked about as friendly as a pissed off bear.</p><p>"Hi there, are you the security guard for this place?" <em>If so, then color me impressed.</em> Kisuke thought as the guy glared at him. His response time to his presence was pretty damned close to two minutes. That was far faster than most responses to a perceived threat.</p><p>The guy didn't bother to answer his question. Instead he reached out and almost before Kisuke realized it, he'd been apprehended and was tightly clutched in the man's large hands.</p><p><em>Shit, his grip is stronger than steel too.</em> Kisuke noted absently. Though he could still break free if he wanted too, he was curious to see what would happen now. Luckily for him, the local authorities weren't called. Instead the guy just unceremoniously tossed him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and ran off.</p><p>The next thing he knew he was being placed in a large wing back chair somewhere inside of the large building that he'd been looking at earlier, where he was then cuffed. Literally. The thick metal cuffs slapped into place around his wrists were a precaution.</p><p>Even he was aware of that much. Likely meant to subdue any quirk-like abilities that he had. Sadly, they would do <em>nothing</em> for his usual abilities since none of them were even remotely quirk related.</p><p>It didn't matter though, the second that he finished analyzing the cuffs he lifted his eyes to see a two foot nine in a half inch tall white furred...thingy with black mouse-like eyes staring at him curiously.</p><p>"Well, what have we here? A villain?" The furred little thingy asked the tall bear of a man whom was lounging close by. Apparently the fact that he was cuffed and supposedly helpless meant nothing to the man. He had decided to stay in the room to make sure that Kisuke behaved.</p><p>Which was a smart move on his part, if a bit unnecessary.</p><p>"A trespasser, I think." The giant said. He spat the word 'trespasser' as if it were something foul. Apparently his mood hadn't gotten any better with Kisuke's 'capture'.</p><p>"Ah, I see." The thiny said before shifting it's attention back to him. "And what brings trespasser-san here today?"</p><p>"Well first of all, you're rude. I'm not sure that I like the idea of transferring my kids here if they're going to pick up lousy manners." Kisuke said in a slightly bored tone, watching as the furred thingy and his giant friend both perked up at the mention of the words 'transfer' and 'kids'. "Second of all, since the safety and well being of my kids is important to me, I was testing your schools defenses-"</p><p>"Oh!" The furred thingy said, his entire demeanor changing from guarded to cheerful. "I see. So you were trying to see if our schools defenses were up to par! You must be wonderful father." The thingy said before turning to his giant friend and saying in a softer tone, "Yagi, take those cuffs off of him so that we can talk a little more in depth."</p><p>The giant, Yagi, nodded his head and moved to remove the cuffs from his wrists while whispering to him from between clenched teeth. "If you try to do anything suspicious, I'll rip you apart."</p><p>"No worries there. I'd like to live another few dozen years or so." Kisuke muttered under his breath, knowing that the giant could hear him. The man looked at him strangely for a moment, but quickly removed the cuffs from his wrists and then moved back to his original place against the wall.</p><p>"Now, then. I apologize for the slightly cold reception that you've had so far. I should have realized sooner that you were a concerned parent," The thingy said. "You say that you have several kids that you'd like to transfer here? Can you tell us a little bit about them? What makes you think that they would fit in here? Are their quirks very powerful?"</p><p>"Well, first of all...they're like me. They don't have quirks."</p><p>"No quirks, you say?"</p><p>"No. I mean, they have abilities- but nothing remotely quirk related."</p><p>"Sir, this school is for children who have quirks and wish to one day be pro-heroes. I'm afraid that we don't really have any place for non-quirk users at this time."</p><p>"So you're one of those people," Kisuke said more to himself than the thingy and his friend. Both of whom stiffened and looked at him as if they'd both like to squash him like a bug or something. "Bigoted and narrowminded. What a shame. Ichigo in particular would have excelled here. Oh well, I look elsewhere for a good school then." Kisuke said as he slowly stood up to leave when the thingy spoke in a fierce tone.</p><p>"We are hardly bigoted or narrowminded, sir."</p><p>"Oh? Sure sounds like you discriminate to me." Kisuke said as he glanced at the creature from over his shoulder.</p><p>"We do <em>not</em> allow discrimination of any kind in our school!" The thingy's voice sounded irked as he said before going on to explain. "The reason that we do not have non-quirk users here has far more to do with the fact that they simply do not do <em>well</em> here. This may be a place of learning, but the lessons that children learn here are more specifically geared towards training them to use their quirks and become heroes."</p><p>Kisuke made a thoughtful humming sound before then saying, "Then you're right. Abilities or not, my kids wouldn't do well here. Especially since none of them have any desire to become heroes... Well, I'm sorry to have wasted your time. I'll go now."</p><p>The two of them looked as if they'd been struck. The giant in particular looked upset to hear that Kisuke's kids had no desire to be heroes.</p><p>"Wait!" The man called out as Kisuke started to walk through the door. He paused for a moment as the giant then asked, "Why would you're kids not want to be heroes?" He sounded...curious. Maybe even a little bit puzzled and hurt.</p><p>"I owe you no explanations about my kid's feelings. Now goodbye, Bear-san." He said firmly as he walked off. No doubt leaving the giant floundering since he could hear him sputtering.</p><hr/><p>The moment that the man was gone, Nezu glanced at Toshinori and sighed. The man looked positively flummoxed. As if he couldn't figure out what had just happened. But Nezu knew.</p><p><em>So, he wishes to play mind games with me. Very well then</em>. Nezu would play his little game of manipulation. But he couldn't say that the man would like the outcome any. Especially if he turned out to have any villainous connections.</p><p>"Toshinori, would you please tail that man and learn what you can of him. I want to be sure that he wasn't here to learn what he could about our school's defenses."</p><p>Toshinori suddenly snapped his mouth shut and looked at him curiously before catching on and nodding his head. "Sure, I'll report whatever I find back to you."</p><p>"See that you do." Nezu said as he waved the man off and smirked evilly as the man vanished.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Trailing the strange man was easier than he'd expected it to be. Especially since the man seemed acutely aware that <em>something</em> was up, but couldn't seem to pin point the problem. And since Toshinori had left U.A in his smaller and less muscular form, then his presence on the street went fairly unnoticed by everyone around him.</p><p>After all, without his flashy All Might form he looked just like any other civilian young man.</p><p>He'd followed the stranger for the better part of an hour before the man finally seemed to head back to his home which was at least four blocks away. Toshinori followed him down the street to the turn off, absently noting that the man was heading was one of the newly formed subdivisions that had some nice homes already built.</p><p>There were several places that had already been put up for sale and sold.</p><p>One of which had a nice sized yard and what looked like a nice, cozy two story home that had a tree with a rope swing attached to one of it's limbs and a dirty basket ball out in the yard.</p><p>Blinking as the man walked up to the house, Toshinori was slightly startled to hear a feminine voice shout, "Kisuke's back!" Mere seconds before an auburn haired teen appeared from inside of the house and flung herself into the man's arms laughing.</p><p>The man caught her easily, and spun around with her before gently depositing her on her feet and then settling his hand on top of her head and ruffled her hair.</p><p>"Hello to you too, Orihime. Where's the others?" He asked curiously as he eyed the open door of the house strangely.</p><p>"Ichigo, Rukia and Chad are out exploring. I think they said something about going by the local grocery store and doing some shopping before they come back home too."</p><p>"Okay. What about Renji and Uryu?"</p><p>"They're both down with food poisoning!" The girl chirped happily as the man looked at her strangely before asking,</p><p>"You cooked them lunch, didn't you?"</p><p>"Yup! My lethal cooking has taken <em>two</em> more victims!" The girl said happily.</p><p>"You sound so proud. I'm glad that you aren't cooking us dinner anymore." The man said before then tacking on, "Come on, Hime. Let's go check and make sure that the guys haven't expired." As he started walking towards the house.</p><p>The girl giggled as she quickly skipped after him. Not bothered in the least that she had poisoned a couple of people.</p><p><em>Well, that's one kid down. The girl mentioned the others going to the local grocery store, maybe I can find them there. What were their names again? Oh yeah, Ichigo, Rukia and Chad. </em>Toshinori thought to himself as he started walking again. He knew that it was likely a long shot, but he had to be thorough in his findings otherwise he'd waste Nezu's time when he reported back to him.</p><hr/><p>Ichigo couldn't hear anything over the music pumping through her headphones as she wandered down the isle of the local grocery store. Rukia and Chad had both abandoned her to do the grocery shopping herself since she had wanted to do it.</p><p>Which left them both free to continue exploring their new surroundings.</p><p>Not that Ichigo envied them any, Chad had already been into two fights with some low life thugs. And Rukia had already somehow picked up a flirtatious stalker, much to the other girl's chagrin.</p><p>Humming as she picked up a pear, and looked it over for bruising as she saw someone interesting enter the store out of the corner of her eye. He was tall. Maybe taller than Chad was and had a slightly muscular build, a handsome face, intense blue eyes and a wild mane of semi long blond hair.</p><p>Humming again, she let her eyes drift back to the pears. The one in her hand was ripe. But what about it's friends? She'd need at least a dozen or so and once she finished getting them, she'd have to move on to the oranges and then the meats.</p><hr/><p>Toshinori entered the store feeling exhausted. It had occurred to him half way to his destination that he didn't know what the kids <em>looked</em> like. And thus had no way actually to find them. Which just plain sucked because now he wasn't sure what he'd be reporting to Nezu.</p><p>Unless he decided to try staking out the guy's home to see the kids when they returned home.</p><p>Sighing, as he decided to pick up a few things while he was there. Especially since it looked more and more as if he'd be getting home much later than he'd originally expected.</p><p>Grabbing a basket, he made his way over to one of the fruit displays to check out the oranges since they were one of his favorite snacks when he was out late while working. He was standing there checking a couple of the fruits over when a dark haired girl in her mid to late teens moved over to the display. All he really saw, was movement in his peripheral so it wasn't all that surprising when he reacted according to his many, many years of hero training and automatically flipped her over his shoulder.</p><p>The girl let out a weirdly cute sounding squeak instead of the expected scream or yelp as she hit the floor on the other side of him, the oranges that she'd picked up moments prior, falling out of her hands and rolling off somewhere as he looked down at her, frozen in shock by what he'd just done.</p><p>For gods sake- how could he have just flipped a kid?! A <em>girl</em> no less.</p><p>She hadn't even <em>done</em> anything to him deserving of such an appalling reaction from him with the exception of getting maybe a little bit too close to him when he was a tad bit stressed.</p><p>Finally managing to mentally shake himself, he quickly stammered out an apology and reached down to help the poor thing up. "I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to flip you like that!" Grasping the girl's arm in his large hand, he couldn't help but notice how fragile the limb felt to him. It was smaller, and felt <em>alarmingly</em> thinner than it appeared.</p><p>Lightly tugging her up off of the floor, he couldn't help but note that she seemed much lighter than she should have too. Almost as if she had been sick for an extended period of time or something and was still in the process of healing up. Or maybe her quirk just burned a lot of calories.</p><p>It was hard to say which one felt more accurate to him since he didn't have any extra sensory quirk abilities.</p><p>"That's alright," The girl said once he had her on her feet again. One hand straying up to her head to straighten her headphones while the other went to her belt to turn the volume down on her CD player. "No harm done." She said kindly, despite the obvious wince of pain that flitted across her face as she reached around to put her hands on her back while looking anywhere but at him.</p><p>Which was unusual since he was used to people looking him in the eye whenever he spoke to them. "Ah, I hurt your back." He said in a concerned tone, internally fretting over hurting her.</p><p>"You didn't do anything. It was hurting before."</p><p>"I can't imagine that my flipping you didn't harm you further. Did you pull a muscle or something?"</p><p>"I don't think so. I think it's just bruised."</p><p>"Bruised?" He asked, worried that maybe he <em>had</em> really hurt her. It certainly wasn't outside of the realm of possibility for him. He had let her hit the floor pretty hard when he froze up.</p><p>She seemed to pick up on his worry by the tone that he used and simply said. "I think it happened earlier today when my friends and I got bored and started roughhousing."</p><p>"O-Oh. I see." He said somewhat lamely as he backed off a little bit as she muttered an excuse to leave. He gave her an awkward, tight lipped smile and watched her grab a couple of oranges and then walk off.</p><p>Once she was gone, Toshinori got the weirdest urge to follow her. Some small foreign part of his mind pointing out that the girl was somewhat...strange. So maybe it would be good to keep an eye on her? After all, it was starting to get late out. And this specific area was fairly well known for it's villain activity once the sun set.</p><p>Would she even be able to make it home without being hassled? Or without hurting her back further? He wondered as he quickly finished up his shopping and then went to check out and decided to hang around and keep an eye out just to be sure.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>A heroes work is never done.</em> Toshinori thought in vexation as he stared down at the mugger whimpering in pain at his feet. No sooner than he'd stepped out of the grocery store, than he had heard someone screaming for help a short ways away. He'd gone to check it out and naturally had foiled a petty criminal attempting to mug someone.</p><p>And though he'd like nothing more than to haul the dumbass whimpering at his feet to the local police, he decided instead to tie him up and place a call to his friend Naomasa. A local detective, to let him know that there was someone in need of picking up before then turning to the elderly woman that the guy had attacked.</p><p>"Are you alright madam?"</p><p>"Oh, I'm fine!"</p><p>"Are you sure? I know that incident's like this one can rattle a person pretty badly. Do you need to be looked over by someone?"</p><p>"No, no, dear boy," The woman said awkwardly as she eyed the guy hog tied on the ground before quickly saying, "Thank you, for your help dear boy."</p><p>He nodded his head slowly, a smile curving his lips as he said, "You're most welcome madam. Please, be more careful in the future." She promised him that she would be before quickly wandering off to god knew where. Leaving him standing there, feeling torn.</p><p>Now he was wondering if he should make sure that the elderly woman got home safe instead.<em> If only had could be at two places at once</em>, He lamented as he move to leave the alleyway. Since he was now in his hero form, he would start drawing far more attention than necessary. But on the plus side maybe it would make things easier for him as far as making sure that the girl from before got home safely.</p><p>After all, everyone liked heroes. Right? He thought almost enthusiastically before the voice of the stranger echoed in his mind, ruthlessly squashing his enthusiasm like a bug.</p><p>
  <em>"None of my kids have any desire to become heroes." </em>
</p><p>He still wanted to know why the kids the man had mentioned seemed to dislike heroes. Maybe he could try asking one of them once he found them?</p><p>Walking back to the grocery store, he paused for a moment upon realizing that the girl was already walking away and put on a quick burst of speed in order to catch up to her. Which was easy due to the use of his quirk. However what wasn't easy was trying to figure out a polite, if <em>nonchalant</em> way to engage her.</p><p>Finally after several minutes of careful thought, he decided to simply try the straight forward way. "Um, excuse me miss." He tried, careful to keep his normally booming voice soft so as not to startle her.</p><p>She wasn't wearing her headphones over her ears like she had been back at the store, so she was able to hear him quite clear. She didn't speak, but he did see her acknowledge his presence by giving him a small look over one of her shoulders.</p><p>"Um...t-those bags look heavy for a such a delicate young lady like yourself, so I was wondering if maybe you wanted some help carrying them?" It was as good an excuse as any to interact with her. Plus the bags really did look far too <em>heavy</em> to be very comfortable for her to carry on her own.</p><p>He was just a little bit surprised that she wasn't staggering under their weight any.</p><p>She still didn't respond to him verbally. But she did hold a bag out for him to take. So maybe he was making progress, however small?</p><p>Smiling, he took the bag from her and settled it in the crook of one of his muscular arms and then waited to see if she would hand him one of the others. She didn't, but he wasn't going to aggravate/spook her by pushing for more than she was willing to give.</p><p>The two of them walked along in silence for several minutes before she finally decided to inquire. "So...what's a hero like you doing in a neighborhood like this one?"</p><p>"O-Oh, well I was out patrolling-" He started to say when she cut him off at the knees.</p><p>"That's a lie, try again."</p><p>"B-But I wasn't lying-"</p><p>"That's a lie too. <em>Try. Again</em>."</p><p>He sighed, wondering how she knew that he was lying in the first place. Was being able to tell the truth from lies a quirk of hers? Was she like Naomasa? If so then she might just have a promising career as a police officer once she grew up as he reluctantly said. "Very well, I was following a suspicious person who came to this area. I'm to spy on him to see if he's a threat of some kind and report back to my boss for further instructions."</p><p>"Alright, that wasn't a lie." She sounded as if she approved of the fact that he hadn't lied to her this time before then saying in a business-like tone, "Now tell me about this suspicious person. Maybe if I know something about him I can help you figure out if he's a threat or not."</p><p>He goggled at her, his jaw hanging open in disbelief. Surely he'd heard her wrong. And even if he hadn't...did she<em> really</em> think that he would allow a civilian girl to place herself in possible danger? Just to help him?</p><p>Nu-uh. No way.</p><p>"No offense to you miss, but no thank you." He said as he gave her a stern look meant to make her back down. She didn't look impressed by it, but he couldn't let that stop him. " I'm a highly trained pro-hero, I can collect the intel on my own. Besides, you're a civilian child. I can't allow you to get involved in anything that could potentially hurt you."</p><p>She cast him a side eyed look as she said, "Sure you can."</p><p>"Huh?" He said as he gave her a weird look.</p><p>"As you said, I'm a civilian child. Suspicious people rarely think twice about letting their guard down around kids. Besides, I can go places that you can't and gather information more easily."</p><p>He gaped at her but couldn't think of any valid arguments to discredit her. Because technically she was right. Sure he still wasn't going to allow her to place herself in harms way to help him, but still...</p><p>"I thought so." She said more to herself than him as she nodded her head. "Suspicious people would flee from you on sight as you are now. Especially since you don't exactly <em>blend</em> in with everyone else. And I hardly think that just anyone would easily mistake you for any other Tom, Dick or Harry, now would they?"</p><p>He did his best <em>not</em> to visibly flinch, but she still noticed the subtle reaction to her words and absently reached out a small hand to rub his arm in what he supposed was meant to be a comforting manner for several minutes before finally dropping her hand away from his arm and saying, "I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound so critical of you. I know that you likely trained for many, many years to do things in a very specific fashion. And I understand that."</p><p>"But you're overlooking a <em>valuable</em> resource. Not everyone who offer's to help you with something is going to get themselves into trouble. And not everyone who tries to help you will be defenseless enough to need you to save them either."</p><p>He stayed silent as he listened to her talk. His mind going over her words carefully.</p><p>"I think, that as long as the person offering to help you understands the risks involved with whatever task you need done; and they are okay with things... Then they are making an informed decision based on that knowledge. Then it should be fine." She paused for a moment or so before then tacking on in a soft, slightly teasing tone, "It isn't like you wouldn't be close by anyways, right. Mr. Hero?"</p><p>He stopped walking, and reached out to grab her hand and pulled her to a stop too. He couldn't deny that there was a certain amount of truth to her words. There was, and though he hated to admit it. She <em>had</em> a valid point about everything.</p><p>"What's your name young lady?" He asked curiously. Some part of him wanted to know her name, among other things about her. But for the moment, he'd settle for just her name. He could figure the rest of the stuff out later.</p><p>"My name is Ichigo Kurosaki."</p><p>"And how old are you Ichigo?"</p><p>"I'm sixteen."</p><p>"And are you training to be a pro-hero?" He asked, hoping that maybe she was. Because if so then it would maybe give him a way to bond with her.</p><p>"No," She said as she carefully tugged her hand from his suddenly slackened fingers. "I have a lot of respect for anyone who can do such a difficult job and make a career out of it. But I have no desire to be a hero. Pro or otherwise."</p><p>He blinked at her, unsure of what to really say to that. It was rare to run into someone so young that could think like a hero could, but had no desire to <em>be</em> one. His curiosity piqued by her, he started to open his mouth to ask her something else, but he never got to since the man he'd followed before suddenly appeared behind the girl.</p><p>His grey eyes going from Toshinori's towering form, to the girl before he called out softly, "Ichigo," She turned around, her expression shifting a little bit from slightly perturbed to friendly.</p><p>"Kisuke, hey. I was just on my way back with food for everyone."</p><p>"I can see that." Kisuke said as he moved closer to her and took the bags that she'd been carrying, from her before shooting him a dark look of warning. "Orihime's cooking has already claimed two more victims. And it's my turn to cook tonight."</p><p>"O-Okay." Ichigo stammered out a little bit as she turned and carefully slipped the heavy bag that Toshinori had been carrying for her, from his grasp and politely thanked him for his help.</p><p>Toshinori didn't know what else to do or say, so her simply told her that she was welcome to use him as a pack mule anytime and then gave her a friendly little smile as he watched her turn and leave with Kisuke.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>In case no one has figured it out yet, Toshinori isn't in a weakened state in this. The story line is a bit deviated from canon too. Meaning that he's not only younger than he was originally (20 something) but he's also working at U.A long before he ever meets Izuku.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>So Ichigo was one of the kids.</em> Toshinori thought as he watched the house from the rooftop across the street where he could easily see several more people out and about.</p><p>One of which, was a tall boy of half blooded descent. He was sitting on the porch steps with a guitar in his hands, his fingers flying across the chords while the auburn haired girl from before clapped her hands along with the melody he was playing.</p><p>There was another girl, one smaller and more petite than the others sitting on the porch swing reading in the waning light.</p><p><em>Those must be the other two that were missing earlier. </em>Toshinori thought idly as the door to the house opened and Ichigo quickly stepped out onto the porch to join them and made her way over to the other dark haired girl and flopped down next to her.</p><p>He'd been hiding himself for the better part of an hour watching the house and the kids who lived there. And so far, he was growing just a tad bit concerned that something was horribly, horribly wrong. For starters, none of the kids that he'd seen so far looked anything at all like that 'Kisuke' guy.</p><p>In fact, none of them looked like they were his kids at <em>all</em>.</p><p>None of them looked like siblings of even cousins either. Each one's distinctive features were uniquely their own and looked nothing like one another.</p><p>Of course it was entirely possible that they were all adopted or something. After all, the foster care system was an completely and utter nightmare. But even if they were adopted, shouldn't there be another parent/adult to help raise them? So far he hadn't seen hide nor hair of any such person. Female or otherwise.</p><p>So naturally by the time he had enough information on 'Kisuke' and the kids to report back to Nezu, his report looked something like this.</p><p>
  <strong>Nezu- </strong>
</p><p><strong>The kids are real and I could be wrong, but I don't exactly think that I am. I think the guy kidnapped those</strong> <strong>kids! I count four of them so far, but I think there's more. I'll continue to observe them just in case. In the meantime, please check for missing children in both Japan and the US. </strong></p><p>Of course, Nezu nearly spazzed out when he read this. And after finally calming his coughing fit, he texted him to keep his eyes open for any suspicious activity while he hopped on his computer and began to look through missing children's cases to see if he could find any that they might need to look into further.</p><p>After all, if the guy was a child kidnapper...then they couldn't allow him to keep the kids without evidence to the contrary. And as heroes, they were very thorough with their work.</p><hr/><p>The second day of observing the house and those in it yielding little in the way of information aside from the other two kids present. Toshinori made a note of them as he hunkered down for a long day of information gathering.</p><p>One of the things that he noted, was that Kisuke left the house early in the morning. Leaving the kids to their own vices for pretty much the remainder of the day.</p><p>Which only seemed to raise even more questions for him because if the kids really had been kidnapped... Why did they not try to run or even get help while the guy was gone?</p><p>Unless Kisuke had an unregistered quirk of some kind that prevented the kids from running or trying to get help. <em>Dammit</em>, the mere thought pissed him off.</p><p>He waited about thirty minutes or so, to make absolutely certain that the man was gone, before he jumped down from his hiding place and switched over to his other form and then took a moment to partially douse himself with some of the bottled water, that he'd brought from home that morning to make it look as if he'd been out jogging for a while.</p><p>And then quickly took up a position a fair distance from the house and started to jog back.</p><p>Ichigo was stepping out of the house, dressed and looking as if she were going to leave by the time he returned. Curious about where the girl could possibly be going, he paused to pretend to be taking a breather. Noting that no one seemed to be paying him any mind despite his random appearance.</p><p>Watching the girl from underneath his damp hair, he tracked her movements as she zipped up her jacket a little bit and then started walking. She cast him <em>one</em> slightly suspicious looking glance, but quickly seemed to dismiss him as she walked away.</p><p>Huffing a little bit at her weird lack of observation skills, he waited until she was a fair distance away before he then fell into step behind her.</p><p>Because he didn't know what she was doing, he was careful to remain at a discreet distance from her at all times as he followed her. Unlike most people, the girl didn't seem to give much thought whatsoever to walking down dark alleyways, or jumping some fences here and there.</p><p>Which...was a little bit<em> irksome </em>to him. Especially since just about anything could happen to a pretty girl like her if she wasn't careful enough. However even so, he made sure to keep his distance and simply follow her. His mind worked a mile a minute as he noted that some of the fences that she jumped were between seven to fifteen feet high.</p><p>And she managed to clear them with such ease that it startled him a little bit. Especially since she didn't seem to be using a quirk. But then again, hadn't 'kidnapper' Kisuke mentioned that the kids he had didn't have quirks?</p><p>Did that mean that she was illegally augmented? Was that <em>why</em> 'kidnapper' Kisuke had her and the others? Was he experimenting on them?</p><p>A chill of dead shot down his spine as his stomach churned dangerously at the sickening thought.</p><p>Fixating his blue eyes on Ichigo, he felt an overwhelming urge to <em>protect</em> her from further harm.</p><p>Because illegal experimentation/augmentation aside, she was a kid. A <em>child</em>. And even if she had been augmented and experimented on, it wasn't as if she could have stopped it from happening.</p><p>In fact he doubted that she could have prevented it in any shape, form, or fashion regardless of how hard she must have fought. And she would have <em>fought</em>, he knew that with a strange sense of absolute certainty. The girl simply didn't seem like the type to lay down and take something that she didn't like.</p><p>Not when she could bloody someone's face instead.</p><p>Finally the girl came to a stop outside of a strange club, playing loud music. Toshinori paused where he was as he watched suspiciously as she walked up to the guard at the door and say something to him to get inside. It took him several seconds to place what the club was since he'd only seen it in pictures and stuff that Naomasa had showed him. But once he recalled just what the place was, he damned near flipped out.</p><p>A fight club!</p><p>The damned girl had waltzed right into a frigging fight club!</p><p><em>Was she insane?!</em> That place was full of all kinds of unsavory people! There were drug pushers, prostitutes, murderers, rapists- and she had just walked right in as if she hadn't a single care in the world! He wasn't sure what appalled him more.</p><p>How <em>dangerous</em> the place/people were. Or the fact that Ichigo had walked in without any possible knowledge of what the place was. Either way, he couldn't allow her to stay inside such a terrible place. Not when she could suffer some unspeakable fate that could be detrimental to her wellbeing.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The moment that Toshinori got off of the phone with his detective friend, Naomasa, he decided that he couldn't simply stand around and wait for the man to get there with the swat team. No- there was no telling what terrible things could befall Ichigo during the time it took for everyone to get organized and move out.</p><p>So once his phone was put up, he sauntered out of the alley and over to the club. Slipped the guard a fifty to grease the wheels a little bit and then slipped inside of the building.</p><p>Once inside he had to fight himself <em>not</em> to visibly flinch or cringe at the first few things that he saw right off the bat. But it was hard not too. Very hard. He didn't think he'd ever seen such disgusting filth before in his life!</p><p>And that was saying a lot considering some of the things that he'd seen thus far in his hero career.</p><p>Already he'd seen several incredibly vivid acts of public debauchery, one of which was a very public gang bang from the looks of it. <em>Bleh.</em> The next round of stuff that he saw made his skin crawl and his stomach churn with nausea.</p><p>An auction of some sort. With both semi nude men and women involved. He literally saw someone throw a huge wad of cash down at some guy's feet and <em>grab</em> one of the women and drag her off somewhere.</p><p>The sooner he found Ichigo and got her out of this snake's den, the better off the girl would be. However despite knowing this, he couldn't help but wonder what had brought her to such a horrible place to begin with. She couldn't possibly work there. Could she?</p><p>God he hoped not. He couldn't imagine such a nice girl in such a soul killing place.</p><p>Making his way deeper into the building, there were several instances where he was approached by a few people looking to make some money off of him. He turned them down of course. Mostly because he wasn't into prostitutes.</p><p>The whole indiscriminate sex scene really wasn't something that he had any interest in. He tended to choose who he shared his body with very <em>carefully</em>. But also because he was pretty sure that several of them had STD's and he didn't want to catch anything.</p><p>Not long after disengaging from the last one, he finally found Ichigo. She was in a private VIP room close to the back.</p><p>Though he wasn't exactly expecting to find her busy in such a manner. He'd expected the worst upon walking into such a horrible place and yet...there she was. Safe and unharmed. Looking as if she were giving a young woman who looked as if she were in her second trimester of pregnancy, an exam.</p><p>Pausing in the doorway of the room that she was inhabiting, he couldn't help but watch the girl curiously.</p><p>From the looks of things, she had medical knowledge and definitely knew what she was doing. She had latex gloves on her hands, and a look of intense concentration on her face as she asked the mother some questions while checking her breasts and then her stomach.</p><p>The woman asked something about what kind of over the counter drugs were safe for her baby if she needed some. And Ichigo responded to her question smoothly and efficiently, almost exactly like a trained medical professional. Telling her the name of some of the most baby safe medicines on the market as well as some natural stuff that the woman could get to use for various things like nausea, heartburn, headaches, sore throats and so on.</p><p>It was truly impressive how knowledgeable the girl seemed to be.</p><p>Finally she finished her exam and stood back with a smile. "Okay, it looks like you and little Junior are doing great. Remember what I said about work, and try not to stress yourself out too much. The little bit of blood that you noticed before was probably spotting. It happens from time to time during pregnancy and should only worry you if it gets significantly worse. If that happens then you'll have to go to a hospital ASAP or risk losing Junior. Got it?"</p><p>The woman nodded her head and broke down sobbing as she thanked her.</p><p>Ichigo merely pulled off her gloves and tossed them into the trash and then pulled a small bottle of hand sanitizer out and used it before then moving to help the woman up. Once that was done, the woman quickly gave the girl a crushing hug and then thanked her again before heading towards the door.</p><p>Toshinori stepped out of sight and watched as the woman left before moving back to the doorway in time to catch the girl on her cell phone. Slipping into the room, his presence went unnoticed up until he closed the door behind him.</p><p>When that happened the girl quickly dropped her cell away from her ear and turned to stare at him for a moment. Recognition warred with suspicion in her expression as she politely told the person that she'd been talking too that she'd call them back and then hung up her phone.</p><p>"You're the guy from the grocery store yesterday." Strangely enough, when she finally managed to speak, her tone wasn't demanding or suspicious at all. Merely...curious.</p><p>"I am," He confirmed with a slight nod before then moving away from the door a little bit as he asked, "What are you doing here girl? Don't you know the kind of place that this is?"</p><p>"It's difficult not to know what this place is. I <em>do</em> have eyes." She said in a bemused tone before then asking, "What are you doing here?"</p><p>"I saw a kid entering a lion's den and came to get her out." He growled at her. His earlier irritation and anxiety welling up to trigger his temper some. If she was surprised by the snarkiness of his tone, she didn't show it any. Though she <em>did</em> look just a bit bothered by his admittance of having come to save her.</p><p>"Wait, wait, wait- Y-You came in here because of me?"</p><p>He didn't bother to verbally respond, instead he canted his head a little bit and studied her with those intense electric blue eyes of his.</p><p>Her face was easy for him to read because it was a lot like an open book. He could see, confusion, concern- for him? As well as many other things before she made a small irked sound and then walked over to him and grabbed his hand as she said, "I need to get you out of here."</p><p>He blinked, his expression turning incredulous as she tugged him towards the door.</p><p>"I need you to listen to me and listen well, the second that we step out of this room- you need to follow my lead," He made a noncommittal sound of vague alarm. Worried about what exactly she may be planning. "You need to commit yourself to the act as much as you can. It has to be <em>believable</em>. Do you understand me?"</p><p>His jaw worked and he stared at her with wide eyes, unable to speak enough to say yea or nay. She huffed and reached out with her empty hand and used her fingertips to snap his mouth shut with a soft, but audible click before then reaching out and grasping the doorknob and turning it.</p><hr/><p>The ease in which Ichigo navigated their way through the club made him uneasy. Mainly because he was starting to believe that maybe...the girl was a little bit more <em>aware</em> of the things going on around her than he'd originally thought.</p><p>So far several drug pushers had walked up and tried to sell them some stuff. And been sent scampering by Ichigo's strangely fierce looking scowl.</p><p>And when a few of the women from before tried to approach them, she sent them packing to by grabbing him by the front of his shirt and pulling him down a little bit so that she could press a lingering kiss to his lips. Which...was <em>weird</em> for him. Especially considering the fact that he was so startled by the move that he didn't even think to quickly push her away.</p><p>Luckily though, she seemed to know that he was uncomfortable and moved away from him once she was sure that they were alone again. "Sorry." She muttered as his face turned red with embarrassment and she started to tug him along behind her again.</p><p>Totally unaware of his mental lamenting about crazy and touchy-feely frigging girls.</p>
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